Wow, what’s the name of this cupcake again?
Because of how simple it was to assemble these deceptively bougie cupcakes, I thought I’d give it a complicated name. These are chiffon, which is a fancy way of saying lighter, airier.. ish. It takes the edge off feeling like you need a nap/induced coma after eating a more traditional denser celebratory cupcake! The frosting is made with a whipped cream enveloped with a light lemon curd cheesecake flavor. To my delight, they were swiftly gobbled up by my daughter’s peers, and I was able to whip them up right before school!
For this recipe, I’ll include both a from scratch recipe, and a quick hacks version which is slightly different, but can be assembled even quicker in a pinch. I literally was able to do these disoriented half asleep, confused about what I was doing up while it was dark, In denial about my daughter’s age, amidst a morning mid-life crisis, and finished packing them up by the time my daughter needed to get to school. Hi, my name is Nhung, but you can also call me WINNINGGGGGG. Just kidding, my kitchen was almostttt as much of a mess as I am, and 3 out of 4 people from our household may have had a cupcake with frosting for brekkie.
Chiffon/Sponge Cupcakes From Scratch
- 3/4 cup sifted cake flour (see note below to replace with all purpose flour & corn starch)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup caster sugar (regular sugar is fine as well, it’s just that caster is literally finerrr)
- 1/4 cup milk
- 5 large eggs with whites/yolks separated at room temperature
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
**3/4 cup of cake flour can be replaced with 3/4 cup of all purpose flour with 1 1/2 tablespoons removed and replaced with 1 1/2 tablespoons of corn starch. These should also be sifted and mixed for this recipe.
Preheat your oven to 325 and bring a kettle of water to make a water bath.
- Whip your egg whites with the cream of tartar on medium speed until frothy. Increase speed to high until stiff peaks form.
- Combine your yolk batter: Oil, egg yolks, sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and milk. Add your sifted flour and baking soda in. Mix until well combined.
- Add 1/3 of your egg whites in and fold it into the batter. Do this until all your egg whites are folded into the batter.
- Bake in a water bath at 325 for 25-30 mins if using a 10′ round. If making cupcakes, bake for 15-20 mins. Insert a toothpick and make sure it comes out clean. You can cool by turning the oven off and opening the oven door. Sometimes when the temperature difference is too great too fast, I find that it deflates a bit.
This makes one 10′ round cake or around 12 cupcakes. For this chiffon sponge cake, you want to make sure you don’t grease the pan. This cake needs to ‘crawl’ up the sides to rise up. If you’re using a 10′ round, you can grease the bottom and add parchment paper to the sides of your pan, or opt out of greasing it altogether. Remember that this cake bakes better with a water bath! Do this simply by placing your cake pan in a larger pan in the oven with boiled water added. This will assure even cooking and a moist cake. I try and aim for 1/2-1′ of water.
If you’re making cupcakes, any cupcake paper liner works. Although, a bunch of 4-5 year olds would argue that the purple liners make the cupcakes taste better than their orange counterparts.. note to self to buy enough liners of one color for the future…It’s rough out there in the Pre-K Pandas world. Shout out to Mrs. B for holding it down while I try to convince the kids that THEY’RE ALL THE SAME T_T.
Chiffon Cupcakes From Any Box Mix
- Your favorite cupcake box mix
- Whatever ingredients specified x 2 of eggs
- 1/4 tsp of tartar
- 1 egg yolk
For this quick version, replace each full egg required in the recipe with 2 egg whites. For example, if the recipe asked for 2 whole eggs, you would then use 4 egg whites in place of the 2 whole eggs.
- Prepare your egg whites by whipping them with the cream of tartar on medium speed until frothy. Increase to high speed until peaks form.
- Create your wet batter by adding your sifted flour, oil, and 1 egg yolk. Mix in your sifted flour.
- Fold your egg whites 1/3 at a time.
- Bake in a water bath using the recipe notes above.
Whipped Lemon Cheesecake Frosting
- Lemon Curd (I used Trader Joe’s for convenience, it comes in a neat little glass jar!)
- Whipped cream (Heavy whipping cream whipped on medium speed with powdered sugar + vanilla extract) OR a large container of Cool Whip
- Softened cream cheese
- Pinch of salt
- Warm your cream cheese so that when you mix it, it isn’t lumpy. Add in some of your lemon curd until your desired sweetness. If you find you want it less lemon-y, you can add powder sugar instead to sweeten to your taste. Add a pinch of salt and mix. This enhances and adds depth to your frosting.
- Fold in your whipped cream or cool whip in small increments to make sure that you end up with a homogenous frosting. Ta-Dah!
**You can opt to flavor your whipped cheesecake frosting with just about anything. I’m talking crushed Oreo cookies, fruit jams, salted caramels, condensed milk, dehydrated fruit sprinkles.. the world is your oyster, but just don’t add the oysters!
Easy as Pie, or is this actually easier than Pie? 🙂
This cake can be prepared and served with a dusting of powdered sugar, served with whipped cream and fruit on the side, a jam, packed on it’s own as a snack, stacked on top of each other to make a large cake..the options are endless. Because it’s so light and fluffy, you really can’t go wrong with it. Happy baking!